Many trucks still use Compressed Air Brakes(Pnuematically controlled -- Fail locked) and They usually use Diesel Engines with Mechanical Fuel Injection -- the Electronics are just too dicy to make 20K hrs of operation at high temperature -- the bits bake out of the Flash due to the charge leaking off of the floating gate -- Cars only run for 2K-10K hrs

Junko: I just saw an auto show in San Rafael, Calif of antique restored cars. They included a 1969 Pontiac, like the one that I drove cross-country in Dec. 1974 with a couple college friends in 47 hours.

somebody in our community asked earlier today, if any of our modern cars (of our time) will be trotted out on a highway just like those antique cars made 100 years ago...I thought that was really an astute observation

Rick: An 19th Ave is now a triple-fine zone, I believe. I will be you that Sen. Yee, who brought us the triple-fine plan, proposes an automated speeding fine for that particular street before the end of his term.

@Caleb: ...that truck still has a fully computerized ignition and brake system though!

True -- and in the scheme of things I'd just like to say that modern vhicles are incredibly reliable ... its' a bit of a shock when something fails to start -- as opposed to when I was a kid when it was more of a shock if my mother's car actually started :-)

@Junko -- now you have me doubting myself -- I just did a search and found this article http://pingmag.jp/2008/03/13/taxi-lights/ but this is totally different -- maybe someone in Japan was having a joke with me when they told me about these lights

A big problem at some airports is the Jammers some of the truckers use and leave on -- messing up the instrument approaches - It will Jam the tracking an monitoring on the truck, but it also Jams the planes on final.

Max: In California, we have red-light cameras that basically convict you on the spot. We're likely to have speed monitors soon that will issue tickets for going over the speed limit (because, among other things, they'll generate a LOT of money for the nearly bankrupt cities). And the Toll transponders on cars are now being used to bill for riding in toll lanes, too.

I hate to admit this about myself, but I think there are a goodly number of consumers like me: I didn't trust power windows until the 80s because in the 70s, it seemed like they weren't working properly in half the cars that had them. So I've got a bit of inner resistance to the idea of self-driving cars. Besides, gizmos cost money. Low-tech cars are cheaper.

That may not be a popular thought at EET, but engineering about people as much as electronics, isn't it?

In the US, where the car culture is SO strong, driving your own car is akin to an expression of liberty and free speech. That human factor may be difficult to overcome here. Although I think the younger generation will move beyond that.

Junko: Yes! We're already seeing how cars are warning drivers of things on the road -- like a neighboring car that is drifting into the lane. And cars that "almost" park themselves. I think we'll see a steady increase in that sort of thing.

Actually, "there's an app" for that -- in Biston they paid for a free app that you can download to your smartphone -- when you are in a car and you drive over a pothole, the app detects that signature acceleration profile and reports the GPS coordinates of the pothole back to the crew that comes out to fix them...

Self-driving cars, as one commenter noted yesterday, could be 20-50 years away. There are just far too many considerations beyond electronics. Remember, most cities can't fix potholes adequately today.

I'm wondering about hijacking other transports too. If you have followed the news, some days ago a train crashed in Spain and a lot of people got killed. Despite the fact that the clues points to an human failure, the latest news make me feel that it wouldn't be so difficult to "cyber-attack" a train...

Somebody mentioned earlier in this conversation, car hacking is going to be important issues when the car industry is talking about self-driving car...I am wondering if anyone knows about legal aspects of the whole thing

Let's face it. The more electronics are involved, the more ways there are of hacking a car. There are now car thieves walking down the street with home-made black boxes that they click until they find a car that opens. Another click starts the engine and releases the steering lock. Much easier than using a jimmy to open the door and rewiring the ignitiion switch.

I had a car stolen once when I left it unblocked and they made a fake key. The car was recovered but the electrical system was screwy aftwards. Such a complex system that once you mess with it, you can't get all the pieces in lace again.

I think the future is closer than even we all think -- it won;t be long before cars have incredibly sophisticated layers of operating system -- with embedded speach and embedded visioon -- maybe a sort of AI (Artificial Intellegence) ... and the more sophisticated it gets, the more potential there is for a hacker to worm his/her way in...

The "EE Times Week In Review" is a live online chat about what's been happening in electronics and engineering and what you thought about it all, from hard news to the weird and wonderful.

This week's chat will take place on Friday, August 9, 2013, commencing at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time / 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

To kick things off, we'll start by consider two columns that have sparked a lot of interest over the past few days, both relating to the topic of hacking cars, but any other columns or "happenings" are open to debate...